RAKHIM s/t (Qbico) lp 25.00
ATTENTION CIRCLE OBSESSIVES AND FINNISH MUSIC FREAKS. THIS IS A KILLER CIRCLE SIDE PROJECT, IT'S LP ONLY, AND IS VERY VERY LIMITED. WE LISTED IT A WHILE BACK, SOLD TONS, AND ONLY JUST NOW MANAGED TO GET A HANDFUL MORE. WE DON'T HAVE VERY MANY LEFT SO ACT FAST!!
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let's dig in. Circle freaks are obviously gonna want this no matter what, it's a single sided half hour jam from Jussi and Janne of Finnish drone rockers Circle. But don't expect this to sound anything like Circle. Well, okay, it sounds a little like that live Circle record Mountain, droney and dark and minimal. What it really sounds like to us is like Circle side project Dr. Kettu with all the bones removed, leaving some sort of dark and tribal ambient krautrock. Rakhim is a super stripped down primal tribal duo, just drums and vocals and tons and tons of effects, which the duo employ to effortlessly kick up quite a dense druggy fug. Swirling clouds and sonic squalls, a murky dronescape lo-fi and dubbed out, strange guttural grunts, freaky whispers, drums-down-the-stairs clatter, dubby FX, wordless vocal melodies, all doused with reverb and distortion, and tangled up with some abstract percussive tribalism. Some sort of Finnish space aged pagan ritual. Vast expanses of whoooosh and whiiiir and swooooosh over chaotic free jazz drum splatter and subtle shuffling skitter. Very tripped out, druggy, super muddy, mega freaked out sososo psychedelic. Could almost be some long lost, recently discovered Faust jam caught surreptitiously on tape way back in the day. Awesome.
One sided heavy marbled white vinyl, packaged in a cool, very Dead C looking black and white sleeve.

RAKOTH Planeshift (Code) cd 17.98
This hitherto unknown Russian black metal band has quickly gained some converts here at Aquarius with this disc. Of course, we're suckers for folky, flute-heavy pagan forest metal! You might laugh at the jig-dancing potential of this disc, and sure, we like it for silly reasons too, but it also can't be denied that that Rakoth's guitars are heavy, their keyboard parts intricate, their songs catchy yet complex. Rasping vocals and buzzing guitar drones balance the happier flutes and keys, in an over-the-top blend of black metal brutality and majestic medieval mood music. Definitely for those into old Ulver, In Extremo, Nokturnal Mortum, and other such weirdness. Highly recommended: Andee and Allan fought over the first copy we got!
RealAudio clip: "Fear (Wasn't In The Design)"
RealAudio clip: "Planeshift"

RAKU SUGIFATTI Futatsu (Improvised Music From Japan) cd 24.00

RAL PARTHA VOGELBACHER Shrill Falcons (Monotreme Records Ltd.) cd 14.98
SF's Ral Partha Vogelbacher unleash their boyish indie rock charms right from the get go on this their third album. Mainman Chad Bidwell sings his deeply personal lyrics in the drollest fashion that reminded us of cross between AQ faves Casiotone For The Painfully Alone's Owen Ashworth and Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields. The musical backdrop (provided by local pals Thee More Shallows and a guest appearance from Odd Nosdam on the track "New Happy Fawn") though is unlike that of either of those artists. As far as we can tell despite the album's title Shrill Falcons, neither piercing sounds nor feathered friends can be found anywhere. What it is filled with is very slouchy yet perky distorted jangly guitars, hazy droning keyboards and infectious hummable melodies. Another reason to get that fuzzy well-worn cardigan out of storage!
Psst, the band enlisted the fine seamstress skills of AQ's very own Pam to stitch a flag version of the album's cover art.
MPEG Stream: "Three Gorges"
MPEG Stream: "New Happy Fawn"

RALE Twilight Soumrak (Indies Records) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Multi-cultural folk-prog-rock from this unique Czech band. Male vocals in a hushed French voice, wild female vocals a la Bjork, bombastic arrangements incorporating strings and guitar, plus ethnic instruments and percussion. Quite dramatic.

RALE Whispering Gallery (Arbor) 12" 11.98
After a few super limited tape releases (so limited we were unable to get any at all), comes this brand new 2 song 12"s from the Bay Area sound dude William Hutson known simply as Rale, whose abstract modular synth dronescapes should absolutely appeal to all the dronelords out in aQ land.
Exploring similar sonic territory as fellow sonic obfuscationists Philip Jeck, Christian Fennesz, Tim Hecker and the like, Rale unleashes a soft stream of ultra minimal crackle, draped over murky barely there melodies and deep gauzy rumbles, a sound haunting and hushed and super minimal, even a little distantly doomy. The track slowly gains momentum, growing ever more distorted and crunchy, eventually the hushed low end drift is overwhelmed by a super processed stuttery stretch of distorted glitch, which after building to a frenzied coda smooths out into a crumbling crackly drone, that finally fades out leaving just strange disembodied sounds and mysterious voices.
The flip side is a similarly slow burning slab of dronemusic. A deep cavernous drift, softly textured, hushed and whispery, an underground sound, underwater, that sound grows warmer and and deeper and more dronelike before gradually transforming into something more brittle and buzzy, but no less blissed out and mesmerizing.
Some seriously gorgeous, hypnotic and occasionally noisy dronemusic, a two song teaser which has been getting repeat plays since we got it in, and most definitely has us wanting more more more...
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES!!

RALPH DOG Afflictions (Bomb Hip-Hop) cd 12.98

RAM Where? (In Conclusion) (Akarma) cd 16.98

RAM JAM Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Ram (Rock Candy) cd 17.98
We've been geeking out on, I mean rockin' out to, a bunch of the '70s and '80s hard rock/heavy metal reissues coming out on the UK's Rock Candy label... Plasmatics, Armored Saint, Billy Squier, Ted Nugent, Riot, a whole bunch of old favorites, done up all deluxe with nice packaging and copious liner notes. We've reviewed a few already. Here's another we like a lot.
First-time-on-cd for this 1978 album, the second and last from one-hit wonders Ram Jam. That one hit was their high octane cover of Leadbelly's "Black Betty" from their first album (do yourself a favor and look up the video on Youtube!!). So what has Portrait Of An Artist As A Young Ram got to offer? Well, though it didn't produce any hits, it's the better of their two records by far. With a revamped line-up, Ram Jam's hybrid bubblegum / biker blues roots are a thing of the past, the band now a lean, mean, polished, hard n' heavy rock outfit that fans of other, more popular commercial late '70s American rockers like Aerosmith, KISS, Foreigner, and Starz should dig... though at the time they apparently didn't, this record sales-wise spelling the end of Ram Jam's career. Dunno why, people must just not have heard it, as it's quite the party platter, full of kick ass lead guitar, powerful vocals, and energetic, catchy tuneage that would sound great blasting from your souped-up Camaro or custom-painted van...
But now here's a chance to hear this again (for the first time, if you're like us!) and give Ram Jam's swansong its due! Recommended to all rockers.
MPEG Stream: "Please, Please, Please (Please Me)"
MPEG Stream: "Hurricane Ride"

RAM-ZET Intra (Candlelight) cd 14.98

RAM-ZET Pure Therapy (Spikefarm) cd 16.98

RAMASES Space Hymns (Vertigo / Repertoire) cd 19.98
A few weeks back we made Andy Votel's amazing mix of prog/funk/jazz/acid rock from the Vertigo vaults our Record Of The Week. Now we're reviewing this, a recently-reissued-on-cd Vertigo album from, ta-da, 1971 that (we don't think) made it onto Votel's disc, thereby demonstrating that even by cramming dozens of little snippets of songs into a mix, he certainly couldn't fully encompass everything awesome that was ever released on Vertigo! This one's not heavy rock, nor is it freaky jazz fusion. Rather, Ramases was a unique one-album-only obscurity playing a kind of mystical pop-prog. I guess it reminds us just a little bit of Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come albums. But it's definitely its own thing, as you might expect from a mysterious psychedelic visionary from South Africa who (perhaps) believed himself to be the reincarnation of an Egyptian pharaoh, who performed these Space Hymns together with his wife Sel, and the assistance of others, including production and guitar licks (and sitar and Moog) courtesy of 10cc's Godley and Creme. The results are really rather catchy and quite strange. Maybe what the second Comus album would have sounded like, if it was a lot better than it was!
This new reish in Repertoire's Vertigo series (we hope to bring you some other titles soon) is nicely deluxe, packaged in a gatefold digipack cd jacket, adorned with Roger Dean's great church steeple/rocketship cover art. It boasts four bonus tracks as well (alternate mixes and b-sides). Recommended if you want to check out some unclassifiable cult tuneage, weird and folkish and electronically Eno-arty, with sci-fi hippy themes perhaps worth puzzling over.
MPEG Stream: "Life Child"
MPEG Stream: "Balloon"

RAMEL, MIKAEL Exra Vagansa cd 21.00

RAMEL, MIKAEL Till Dej (Sonet / Universal) cd 21.00
The son of one of Sweden's most beloved musicians, Ramel meticulously recorded this psych folk rock album almost completely on his own, dumping mixed tracks onto one track, adding another track, dumping those down, etc.
Oddly, Ramel at times shares some of the exuberance and playful unpredictability of Brazil's similarly psychedelic Tropicalia sound (Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso). Cool!

RAMESES Misanthropic Alchemy (Feto) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Ramesses Part 3"
MPEG Stream: "Lords Misrule"

RAMESES III Basilica (Important Records) 2cd 14.98
More pastoral beauty from this UK outfit, two discs this time, one of originals, record live and in rehearsal, the other discs, remixes and reinterpretations by Robert Horton, Keith Berry, Gregg Kowalsky and Neil Campbell.
The originals disc is maybe the breeziest and airiest to date, guitars are wreathed in reverb, releasing glimmering notes like blowing the white fluff off dandelions, the notes swirling and drifting, hovering over smooth glassy landscapes of warm whir, smeared synth buzz, minimal muted melodies, warm fuzzy pop ambient style drifts, like some free folk band covering The Orb, lilting free folk, the musical equivalent of dewy grass, autumn leaves falling through from a grey sky, sun dappled hillsides, soft slow shifting clouds, the day's first light, the sun making the moist grass sparkle like diamonds, viewing everything through a frosty pane of glass, rendering everything blurred and dreamily indistinct.
Well worth the price of admission for that disc alone, but there's a whole 'nother record, four long tracks, each of the above mentioned artists re-envisioning the originals. Robert Horton begins with a sprinkle of angelic high end, before bringing in the lows, a series of warm overlapping tones, barely shifting, all intertwined, into one slow organic swell, a near static melody unwinding in slow motion, over the course of nearly 8 minutes. Keith Berry's take is much more gritty, a gentle whirl of fuzzy streaks, muted into dreamlike murmurs, floating within a delicate landscape of glacial lowend and buried melody. Gregg Kowalsky turns his Rameses III source material into something jubilant and majestic, a sort of softened Sunroof!, all bells and chimes and bell-like tones, a glorious cacophony transformed into something less noisy and chaotic and more dense and layered, almost like the sound of a thousand orchestras tuning up stretched into some strange sunlit raga. And finally, Astral Social Clubber Neil Campbell stretches out Rameses III into some blissed out spacedrone, rife with distorted guitars, long drones, high end squalls of feedback, druggy effects, all slithering and squirming just below the surface, a surface which is a seemingly endless Niblock-like drone, the notes and layers beating against one another creating all sorts of subtle rhythms and strange harmonies, simultaneously static and in motion, a roiling writhing inner space ritual.
MPEG Stream: "Basilica (Keith Berry Remix)"
MPEG Stream: "Tigers In The Snake Pit (Neil Campbell Remix)"

RAMESES III Folk Hymns (Firefly Recordings) cd 9.98
An archival release from UK bliss folk drone combo Rameses III, released way back in, well, a long time ago, apparently long before the band started experimenting with tripped out production and field recordings, hazy washes of distortion and delay, and long sprawling dronescapes. Just like the title suggests, these are indeed Folk Hymns, very intimate and hushed, whispery and stripped down, often just acoustic guitar and voice. Plaintive and melancholy, the guitars lazy and sun dappled, the melodies relaxed and gentle, the vocals a bit raspy, definitely world weary, some of the songs are embellished with bits of extra guitar, slide, super subtle atmospherics, distant buzz and the like, but for the most part this is a gorgeously minimal modern folk record. Rameses III fans should still dig, but folks into stuff like Palace, Bonnie Prince Billy, Iron And Wine, Appendix Out, Songs:Ohia, Supreme Dicks, Alasdair Roberts, Sufjan Stevens and the like should definitely check out. Might be a gateway record to trippier and blissier things. We can hope...
We only got a handful of these direct from the band, so no telling how long this will be around.
MPEG Stream: "Where The River Flows"
MPEG Stream: "Leave It All Behind"

RAMESES III Honey Rose (Important) cd 9.98
Such pastoral bliss is on display within the cozy confines of this ep by the UK's Rameses III. One of the prettier discs we've heard all year, these mostly instrumental tracks (there is some hushed vocals on a couple songs) glisten with glimmering guitar ambiance that had us thinking of a slightly twangier Robin Guthrie or Durruti Column or even the wonderful instrumental guitar albums of Tom Verlaine. Timeless and mellow like a late summer sunrise. Makes so much sense that this was music recorded for a film, as it's so easy to close your eyes and visualize wide open landscapes of long winding roads, huge blue skies and fields of shimmering wet green grass. So so nice...
MPEG Stream: "Theme 1"
MPEG Stream: "Theme 2"
MPEG Stream: "Theme 3"

RAMESES III I Could Not Love You More (Type) cd 15.98
South London's daydreaming guitar trio are back with a brand new offering of gorgeous electric guitar wash and hazy ambient epiphany, this time on everyone's favorite big time of the small time label, Type. I Could Not Love You More finds Rameses III perfecting their regal, monolithic sound, and we couldn't be more thrilled! Majestic chords and metallic shimmer rise from the blurring horizon, heart-wrenching melody and cinematic richness pour into the sky with a radiant ooze. Pastoral soundtracks stretched out and slowed down into time-lapsed images of rising tides and exploding stars, blissfully huge and epic while always grasping on to a forward moving narrative, through quiet grasslands of fingerpicked, Takoma style acoustic guitar to swelling waves of glistening tones that grow and radiate on the verge of feedback.
While even some of our favorite modern ambient music relies on layers and layers of digital processing, Rameses III maintains a certain acoustic integrity by layering strictly live instruments. Electric guitars, electric pianos, and mellotrons produce a warm, ethereal wash that brings an otherworldly depth to their sound, a depth that digital processing could never recreate.
Ghostly and melodic, mysterious and heavy, ambient and thoughtful, I Could Not Love You More is no doubt the trio's finest work and a perfect addition to the Type catalogue, highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "We Shall Never Sing of Sorrow"
MPEG Stream: "No Water, No Moon"
MPEG Stream: "I Could Not Love You More"

RAMESES III I Could Not Love You More (Type) lp 19.98
South London's daydreaming guitar trio are back with a brand new offering of gorgeous electric guitar wash and hazy ambient epiphany, this time on everyone's favorite big time of the small time label, Type. I Could Not Love You More finds Rameses III perfecting their regal, monolithic sound, and we couldn't be more thrilled! Majestic chords and metallic shimmer rise from the blurring horizon, heart-wrenching melody and cinematic richness pour into the sky with a radiant ooze. Pastoral soundtracks stretched out and slowed down into time-lapsed images of rising tides and exploding stars, blissfully huge and epic while always grasping on to a forward moving narrative, through quiet grasslands of fingerpicked, Takoma style acoustic guitar to swelling waves of glistening tones that grow and radiate on the verge of feedback.
While even some of our favorite modern ambient music relies on layers and layers of digital processing, Rameses III maintains a certain acoustic integrity by layering strictly live instruments. Electric guitars, electric pianos, and mellotrons produce a warm, ethereal wash that brings an otherworldly depth to their sound, a depth that digital processing could never recreate.
Ghostly and melodic, mysterious and heavy, ambient and thoughtful, I Could Not Love You More is no doubt the trio's finest work and a perfect addition to the Type catalogue, highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "We Shall Never Sing of Sorrow"
MPEG Stream: "No Water, No Moon"
MPEG Stream: "I Could Not Love You More"

RAMESES III Jozepha (Barl Fire) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
You know something is fishy when limited cd-r's start getting reissued as... LIMITED CD-R'S!!! What the heck?! Once makes sense, nothing wrong with a limited cd-r, but reissuing an out of print cd-r on cd-r AGAIN just makes us wonder why the heck it wasn't a real cd in the first place. Especially if it's so good that it requires multiple reissues. That said, at least we can be thankful that this gorgeous gem is still available at all. Originally released in 2004 on Campbell Kneale's Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label Jozepha is a practically perfect suite of songs, glistening and delicate, sweet and melancholy, steel string acoustic guitars, simple slide, even some subtle harmonica, lovely melodies drifting and intertwining, meandering lazily, soft sunlight filtered through the leaves and branches overhead, a cool breeze. A little bit country, a little bit pop, but mostly a totally timeless, dreamy instrumental journey with no particular destination, just floating along like big soft clouds, warm chords swirling like autumn leaves, simple melodies, dropping one note at a time, like raindrops on a sunny day. Quite possibly the sweetest, dreamiest, driftiest, swooniest record we've heard in ages. And frustratingly, this is again EXTREMELY LIMITED. Comes packaged quite smartly in an exquisitely embroidered sleeve!
MPEG Stream: "For Elsie (Cherry Blossom Falls)"
MPEG Stream: "The Silent Union Goes To War"

RAMESES III Matanuska (Music Fellowship) cd 15.98
BACK IN STOCK!!
First proper actual cd full length from this blissy UK free folk crew, after a clutch of (now out of print) cd-r's and a collaborative disc with the North Sea. Matanuska begins as a gloriously blissful late afternoon, sunshiney slab of fuzzy, buzzy, muted pop ambience, sparkling and glimmering, there are guitars, but they aren't plucked or strummed so much as spread like a thick glaze over the speakers. Within this gorgeous sun dappled soundfield, are tangled up bits of found sounds, distant ringing bells, rumbling thunder, as well as subtle layers of drone and shimmer adding mystery and depth to each track.
The rest of the record however is not so sunshiney, the mood is much more dark and shadowy, lit by moonlight, rumbles and whirs swirled into lush late night crawls, acoustic guitars draped over slow serene swells of sound, the buzz of steel strings muted and drawn out into simple shimmering ragas, the vibe is definitely sorrowful, melancholy, with minor key melodies drifting through intricate webs of abstract Appalachia, wheezing layered drones spread out like a late afternoon fog, amidst chirping birds and distant bits of conversation, a slowly shifting bit of minimal dreamdrone that brightens subtly as it works its way though the disc.
The record finishes up with the sun peeking out from behind the clouds, like that glorious first day of Spring, the birds once again singing, the shimmering sounds soaking up the sunlight, a drifting drone, warm and glowing, a hopeful dreamy sound that blossoms like a flower after a rainstorm, the hushed buzz growing fuzzier and fuzzier, almost like a fading memory. So nice.
MPEG Stream: "Before The Rains Fall (For Ed Cooke)"
MPEG Stream: "The Great Campaigner"

RAMESES III Parsimonia (Barl Fire) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As frustrating as superlimited cd-r's can be, you really can complain when faced with music this dark and mysteriously lovely. You can wish that someone would have the foresight to know when a record was amazing, and thus might press more than 130 copies, but again, we're happy that 130 more people get a chance to hear this record. The UK three piece known as Rameses III have been quietly laboring away for 5 or 6 years now, having released cd-r's on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, 267 Lattajjaa and handful of others. Their sound is hushed, a whispery drone, disembodied guitars, the sounds of running water and bird calls, bowed strings, shimmering ambience, a slow melodic churn through dark mysteries and warm soft soundscapes. Parsimonia was originally released on Foxy Digitalis way back in 2004, this reissue adds some spiffy new artwork and like we said, gives 130 more people the chance to enjoy some gorgeous late night drone and shimmer. Which actually means 30 AQ customers as this is frustratingly already out of print and we took all the copies the label had left. The sound on Parsominia is just more of what we've come to love about Rameses III, soft subtle soundscapes cobbled together from natural sounds and delicately crafted drones, never better exemplified than on the title track, a nearly 12 minute track of warm melodic swells, broadcast across a spring meadow, birds chirp, families laugh and talk, the wind rustles the leaves, all the while a huge shimmery cloud of muted rumble and soft focused sonic swirl drifts dreamlike through the trees. The rest of Parsimonia is equally drifty and dreamy, incorporating chiming bells, gentle finger picked steel string guitar and mumbly murky feedback into sweet sweet swells of mystical and transcendental sound.
LIMITED TO 130 COPIES, OF WHICH WE GOT 30. IT'S ALREADY OUT OF PRINT SO ONCE THESE ARE GONE THEY ARE GONE FOR GOOD (or until some other cd-r label decides to press up 100 more, arghh!)
MPEG Stream: "When The Bomb Drops, Hold Me Close"
MPEG Stream: "Three Ghosts (U.F.O.)"

RAMESSES The Tomb (Invada) cd 15.98

RAMESSES We Will Lead You To The Glorious Times (This Dark Reign) cd 14.98

RAMLEH Too Many Miles (Dirter Promotions) cd 17.98
BACK IN PRINT!!!
Much has been written here about the recent work of Matthew Bower and his beautiful improv skree in Sunroof (paralleling the massive proliferation of likeminded acts Vibracathedral Orchestra and Birchville Cat Motel); but people often overlook the fact that he began making music in the early '80s as a part of the Broken Flag camp - a loose collective of British power electronics technicians and noise rockers, that recorded under the monikers Skullflower, Total, and Ramleh. While Bower was principally the 'figurehead' of the first two and fellow Broken Flag waver Gary Mundy took hold of Ramleh, most of the recording was done with a revolving door membership. Between Skullflower and Ramleh, the Broken Flag camp had produced a noxious arsenal of sludgy noise rock with grim guitar pyrotechnics, crashing upon pummelling rhythm sections, village-idiot basslines and thuggish percussive blasts. These days, the awe-inspiring Skullflower albums Form Destroyer and Birthdeath are virtually extinct (even, the cd compendium Ruins is impossible to find); but fortunately, the old Ramleh stuff is finally available again via this collection of singles. Hopefully this will help keep Broken Flag from dissappearing in the dustbins of musical history.
The formulas for Ramleh (and Skullflower for that matter) were incredibly simple: hammer out a basic rhythm as heavy and as loud as possible, then layer on the angriest and most dissonant blasts of post-Blue Cheer psychedelic freaks outs. Throughout the '80s, Ramleh and Skullflower were pigeonholed as a part of Industrial Culture - due to their power electronics side projects and associations with Whitehouse; yet as Too Many Miles now indicates, this work has much more parallels with the explosive dirges of Neurosis or the incendiary stoner rock of Boris. Really fantastic stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Eightball Corner Pocket"
MPEG Stream: "Welcome"
MPEG Stream: "Black Moby Dick"

RAMMELLZEE Bi-Conicals Of The Rammellzee (Gomma) cd 15.98
Some of you may remember the Rammellzee track from the recent Anti NY compilation where he teamed up with NY legends Death Komet Krew. A dark and creepy slice of hip hop weirdness. And some of you may even remember the classic track "Beat Bop" recorded with Jean Michael Basquiat and K-Rob. One of the all time old school classics. Rammellzee was a serious player in the NYC B-boy / hip hop / graffiti scene. He was featured in the movie Wildstyle, worked with tons of folks (Fab 5 Freddie, Futura 2000, Phase 2 and more) and was one of the first graffiti artists to be taken seriously by the art world. But beyond his legendary status and past accomplishments, this is some really, really weird shit. Existing in his own universe, Gothic Futurism, along with life size muppets made out of trash, fur, junk and computers, and of course there's his futuristic skateboards, Rammellzee has taken his shit to the next level. Raw and wacked out, electo beats collide with classic hip hop, instantly recognizable samples are twisted into new shapes, found sound snippets are collaged with all sorts of squelches and drones and whirs, while Rammellzee delives his damaged demented lyrical flow in a gruff cookie monster / Oscar the Grouch growl, that occasionally morphs into an Anticon style whine. This craziness may sound classic, but it was all recorded over the last few years with help from the Death Komet Krew and a handful of likeminded hip-hop weirdos. So weird and so amazing. Everyone into Mush and Anticon and all that stuff needs to check this stuff out. My favorite new (old) hip hop record this year!
MPEG Stream: "Do We Have To Show A Resume?"
MPEG Stream: "The Rammellzee Vs. K-Rob: Beat Bop Part 2"
MPEG Stream: "Cheesy Lipstick"

RAMMELLZEE Bi-Conicals Of The Rammellzee (Gomma) 2lp 17.98
NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL!!! Some of you may remember the Rammellzee track from the recent Anti NY compilation where he teamed up with NY legends Death Komet Krew. A dark and creepy slice of hip hop weirdness. And some of you may even remember the classic track "Beat Bop" recorded with Jean Michael Basquiat and K-Rob. One of the all time old school classics. Rammellzee was a serious player in the NYC B-boy / hip hop / graffiti scene. He was featured in the movie Wildstyle, worked with tons of folks (Fab 5 Freddie, Futura 2000, Phase 2 and more) and was one of the first graffiti artists to be taken seriously by the art world. But beyond his legendary status and past accomplishments, this is some really, really weird shit. Existing in his own universe, Gothic Futurism, along with life size muppets made out of trash, fur, junk and computers, and of course there's his futuristic skateboards, Rammellzee has taken his shit to the next level. Raw and wacked out, electo beats collide with classic hip hop, instantly recognizable samples are twisted into new shapes, found sound snippets are collaged with all sorts of squelches and drones and whirs, while Rammellzee delives his damaged demented lyrical flow in a gruff cookie monster / Oscar the Grouch growl, that occasionally morphs into an Anticon style whine. This craziness may sound classic, but it was all recorded over the last few years with help from the Death Komet Krew and a handful of likeminded hip-hop weirdos. So weird and so amazing. Everyone into Mush and Anticon and all that stuff needs to check this stuff out. My favorite new (old) hip hop record this year!
MPEG Stream: "Do We Have To Show A Resume?"
MPEG Stream: "The Rammellzee Vs. K-Rob: Beat Bop Part 2"
MPEG Stream: "Cheesy Lipstick"

RAMMER Cancer (Blue Fog) cd 14.98
If you crank Rammer's oh-so-positively named 2nd full-length album (and the cd booklet specifically recommends that listeners "fucking crank it"), you'll hear some maniac shouting himself raw on such subjects as butchers, Russia, and radiation, above a metallic din of amps to 11 and drumming to 12. If you know what's what, you'll quickly suss out that these Canadian hessians are young guns with old school obsessions. The collection of '80s thrash metal cassettes used as a background graphic in the cd booklet is another tip off. Throw in influences from death metal and metalcore, and a steady liquid diet of Molsons, and you've got a headbanging force to be reckoned with, Toronto's Rammer definitely having graduated with honors from the votech program for raging retro metalology at that aforementioned old school. Likely classmates of theirs would include Skeletonwitch, Goathorn, Boulder, Defleshed, and Early Man, all of these bands having taken classes from teachers like Slayer, Destruction, and Nuclear Assault. Thus these 11 songs are fully strapped with vicious chugging riffage, sore-throat vox, intense drum battery and (their forte) ripping guitar solos from Rammer's two axe-meisters. Simple pleasures perhaps, but nothing to scoff at if you're metallically inclined! Weirdly, this band has got some sort of indie-cred (Blue Fog ain't a metal label) but don't worry, this isn't ironic hipster metal (unlike, perhaps, at least one of the bands mentioned above, no not Slayer). Or if it is, the "real metallers" might as well pack it in, they've been outclassed by supposed poseurs!!
But no band of poseurs could be so metal as to follow in the glorious tradition of writing a song with the same name as the band ("Rammer") AND making it be about some sort of totally rad, ravening murderous monster, another glorious tradition...
MPEG Stream: "Dataslut"
MPEG Stream: "Rammer"

RAMMER Suffer (Funeral Gig) cd 9.98

RAMMER / S.T.R.E.E.T.S. Split (Global Symphonic) 7" 5.98
Another candidate for best band name ever: S.T.R.E.E.T.S. which in case you didn't know, stands for Skating Totally Rules Everything Else Totally Sucks! Man. And then team those guys up with the also suitably named Rammer, and you've got a pretty decent all-Canadian skate rock vs. cock rock tag team battle! In a cool, nicely designed lime green sleeve.

RAMMSTEIN Mutter (Republic) cd 15.98
No we're not kidding -- we love Rammstein! Here's the new album from these scary German industrial/metal dudes. Fire! Fire! It's surprising that they're as popular in this country as they are, considering that they sing in German. But I guess their theatrics and heavier-than-nu-metal are a universal language... Ridiculous but great.
RealAudio clip: "Feuer Frei!"

RAMMSTEIN Reise, Reise (Universal) cd 15.98
How can you not love Rammstein? Huge metallic riffs. Pounding thunderous Teutonic rhythms. Uber-grandiose fist pumping anthems. Crystal clear perfect production. And let's not forget the live spectacle of flames and explosions and fireworks (and of course the infamous flame-throwing codpiece). They are the perfect blend of orchestral black metal bombast a la Cradle Of Filth / Dimmu Borgir and Laibach style Wagnerian industrial pomp. Plus when they lock into a groove, they sound strangely like Finnish hypno-rockers Circle. Which is ALWAYS a good thing. This is probably the best Rammstein record yet. The songs are heavy and catchy and weird and really really good. All of the above sonic elements are in full effect, with lots of that Circle-ish mesmer we can't get enough of, as well as a couple standout tracks, a really biting anti-America song that is sung in English, with lyrics that reference the Wonderbra (!) and Coca-Cola and explain that "This is not a love song, I don't sing my mother tongue", a track sung partially in Russian, as well as a really amazing track with killer female vocal counterpoint. Plus strings, a choir, a full orchestra, and of course vocalist Till Lindemann's instantly recognizable, totally menacing, low low low growl. So good. Another band who if you can get beyond the endless 'hype' and media bullshit, will totally and completely kick your ass.
MPEG Stream: "Reise, Reise"
MPEG Stream: "Los"

RAMONE, JOEY Don't Worry About Me (Sanctuary) cd 17.98
We're all very sad that Joey Ramone died. But we're also sort of sad that this is the record that was left for us to remember him by. This whole package pulls shamelessly on the ol' heartstrings, the title "Don't Worry About Me", and the timing -- released while our wounds are still fresh -- and then to add insult to injury the record just kind of sucks. It's so clean sounding, you just can't compare it to the Ramones cuz it's on a whole different planet. It's poppy and goofy, but without the charm that made the Ramones special. A lot of people seem to like it, the reviews so far have all been positive, but I think maybe people are a bit hesitant to slam the record all things considered. Do yourself a favor and throw on your old beat up copy of 'Rocket To Russia' and toast to Joey and make up your own appropriate tribute.
RealAudio clip: "Don't Worry About Me"
RealAudio clip: "Mr. Punchy"
RealAudio clip: "What A Wonderful World "

RAMONES End Of The Century, The Story Of The Ramones (Rhino) dvd 23.00
Tommy, Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, and Marky. They lived to see themselves reach iconic status. Yet, through intense inter-personal strife impacted by the eclipsing success of the musical acts that followed in their footsteps, these guys seem to have barely enjoyed anything at all. This incredibly well-made rockumentary tells the story of four kids from Forest Hills, Queens who bonded over a mutual admiration of The Stooges and found a way out of their shitty home and school-life by playing music together. It follows their early career in the 70's as The Ramones, playing gnarly Bowery-bum ridden CBGB's alongside other new acts like Television, Talking Heads and Blondie to touring through Europe and Latin America with huge sold-out gigs. Success seemed to shine on them overseas solely, while in small shitty clubs across the US, they were boo'd, jeered, laughed at or the subject of thrown bottles and cans. Simultaneously, their record sales refused to escalate as they had hoped.
The Ramones were a musical force, however. Their songs were brutal, consice and earnest. Their sound was fast, fierce and fucking impenetrable - in the vein of garagey Americana pop punk. But God dammit, you already knew that! Well, you've probably forgotten how fucking GOOD they were. You'll see some pretty amazing live footage inside this over-two-hour film. Early live shows and incredibly endearing interviews with bandmembers (save Johnny) will regenerate anyone's adoration for these boys. Their story also emphasizes the emotions involved in being a Ramone. This is a tragic but important part of who they were. For instance, of the band's original personnel, Tommy (the only one to quit pretty early on), is the only one still alive.
Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy created an inspirational legacy and this documentation does its absolute best to communicate to us their lives' work. It will award you with an awesome fight on stage, a re-telling of their experience with producer Phil Spector, priceless moments of Dee Dee's "other musical exploration", and... aw, c'mon, did you really think I'd tell you any more? I will tell you this and none more: extra features include bonus interview footage and among other things, the Marky Ramone Drum Technique! All you drummers out there will appreciate that little nugget.
By far, End Of The Century, The Story of The Ramones is not only an important addition to any rock collection, it's absolutely informative and inspirational to any musician and/or music-lover. But hey ho this baby's Region 1.

RAMONES s/t (Warner Archives) cd 12.98
Awesome! Reissued in 2001, this cd features eight bonus tracks which include a bunch of demo versions for songs such as "Blitzkrieg Bop", "Judy Is A Punk", "I Don't Care" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"!

RAMONES Weird Tales Of The Ramones (Warner Bros. / Rhino) book+dvd+cd 73.00

RANALDO, LEE Amarillo Ramp (Starlight) cd 12.98
Sonic Youth guitarist's solo tribute to earthworks artist Robert Smithson. Here's what El Bobo at Revolver Distro has to say about it: "Sonic Youth's left-minded, and soft-spoken lead guitarist continues to wield a big stick with a new solo outing of the highest sonic magnitude. First off is the title track, a 34-minute live recording from 1994 with after-the-fact wave-shaping and spectral improvement by Rafael Toral, followed by an instrumental 'Anagrama' type frolic with bandmates Steve Shelley and Thurston Moore. Also included are a couple of soundtrack excerpts, one from Notebook, and the other from one of Leah Singer's mind-smudging flicks (originally on '91's Guitarrorists comp.), and a John Lennon cover featuring the late Epic Soundtracks. As always it's a brilliant ride."

RANALDO, LEE Countless Centuries Fled Into The Distance... (Table Of The Elements) 12" 17.98
Another in Table Of The Elements' new series of one sided etched 12"s. A series focusing on the electric guitar. Last time we had Oren Ambarchi, this time we have Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, who starts out his 12" sounding quite a bit like Sonic Youth in fact. Noisy crashing chords, chaotic and off kilter, over a super high pitched sonar like beep, weirdly hypnotic until it explodes into a full on psychedelic skreekout.
The second track begins with an amazing tripped out, warbly warped guitar groove, which gives way to a weird high end drone doused in fucked up effects, so woozy it almost makes you dizzy just listening, and reminds us a bit of a fucked up set of bagpipes.
The final track begins with an echo-y almost-industrial space-y surfy riff, that shifts suddenly in pitch, creating mysterious melodies, super haunting and hypnotic, but this track too soon gives way to a massive amp blowing, speaker melting chunk of freaked out Japanese style noise-psych. Whew.
Pressed on opaque swirled turquoise vinyl. One sided, the other side with a super bad ass etching by Savage Pencil, housed in a thick vinyl sleeve, and of course, as always LIMITED!

RANALDO, LEE Windows (Barooni) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hypnogogic and stratospheric guitar noise/drones from Sonic Youth's guitarist who generates some pretty outstanding sounds similar to the ending tracks on "Daydream Nation" and recites his dystopic pseudo-Beat poetry over top. Lee employs such luminaries as Thurston Moore, Michael Morley (Dead C, Gate), and Epic Soundtracks.

RANDALL OF NAZARETH s/t (Drag City) cd 14.98
Acoustic folky stuff from one of the dudes from Pearls And Brass.

RANDALL OF NAZARETH s/t (Drag City) lp 15.98
Acoustic folky stuff from one of the dudes from Pearls And Brass.

RANDOM s/t (Kyouei Ltd.) cd 22.00
Managed to get a handful more of these weird and wonderful records...
It had to happen. It probably already has happened actually, but we love the weird, and the random, and we figured you probably would too. This is a Japanese import, not sure exactly who the artist is, but it's 99 tracks, each a rich lustrous tone, some deep and bell like, some soft and sonorous, some high pitched like a sine wave. All you have to do is set your cd player on random and away we go. A soft, subtle ambient journey, that ends up sounding a bit like Morton Feldman's Rothko Chapel, only a bit though. It also sort of sounds like Tibetan bowls, or chiming bells, or soft ambient Japanese music (which I guess it is). Soft and lovely, and most importantly RANDOM. 99 seperate tones means the number of possible songs is an astronomical 9.33262154 x 10 to the 155th! And that's if you only let each tone play once... So even though the disc is actually only about 8 minutes long, set to shuffle it turns into 8 million billion trillion minutes! Or more!
Anyway, this seems to work best if you import the disc to iTunes, set to shuffle and with a decent crossfade, then just sit back and drift off, let the gorgeously soft and shimmery, sweet and serene ambience wash over you.
MPEG Stream: "One"

RANDOM INC Walking In Jerusalem (Mille Plateaux) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is ostensibly a walk through Jeruselem as recorded by Random Inc. (who was a member of Autopoeises) and then processed/altered/fucked with by himself and a handful of guests including Tim Hecker, Electric Birds, the Rip-Off Artist, Ultra-Red and more. The results are pretty fantastic. I've listened to almost nothing else for the last few nights. This falls somewhere between AQ faves Stefan Mathieu and Oval, sort of gritty, buzzy, and hypnotic dreamscapes, but much darker and more cinematic, partly because of the recorded snippets of life/people/music in Jerusalem, but also because of the musical choices made by the contributors. This is a really dreary, somber, hypnotic, droning affair, with lots of buzz and click and hum and skitter. And the artists gentle touch with the original sound sources results in some totally breathtaking moments. I haven't dug a record this much since Oval's Diskont. Great stuff.
RealAudio clip: "Random_Inc. Entering Jerusalem (Coming From the West)"
RealAudio clip: "Random_Inc. Meets Tim Hecker In Musrara"
RealAudio clip: "Random_Inc. Entering Jerusalem (Coming From the East)"
RealAudio clip: "Random_Inc. Meets Electric Birds In Mamillah"

RANDOM INC. Jerusalem (Ritornell) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Stephan Meissner is a mainstay of the Mille Plateaux clicks 'n cuts crew via his work in Autopoesies and his solo projects Random Industries and Random Inc. "Jerusalem" is his latest work, the resulti of four years of gathering and editting sound material, specifically related to the complex and often volatile relationship between Jews and Palestinians in Jerusalem. Meissner's meditation on this city's cultural make-up plays upon the geographic rhizomes of neighborhoods and holy sites, which clearly do not follow easily definable boundaries. The city's geography itself acknowleges an extraordinary history of the continuous influx and dispersion of numerous persecuted peoples. While Meissner's micro-sampling technique has the potential to recombine all of the musical elements of both Arabs and Jews into a homogeneous synthesis, he instead opts for a neo-historical approach, co-opting the 20th Century's narrative of that land which saw the power shift from Arabic to Israeli. The first half of the album steps into the empty space left behind by Muslimgauze in a digital appropriation of Arabic percussions, choral chant, and guitars within an electro-glitch setting, but slowly the timbres morph from the warmth of the Arabic to the melancholy of Klezmer with doleful passages for violin, accordion, and clarinet. Meissner keeps a dutiful distance in his recombinant history using only the glitch as his signature, which may rearrange the syntax of the appropriated musics but does not alter the historical narrative to which the musical elements refer.
RealAudio clip: "Untitled Track 20"
RealAudio clip: "Untitled Track 6"

RANDOM INDUSTRIES Selected Random Works (Ritornell) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Random Industries is the work of Sebastian Meissner (ex-Autopoieses). For "Selected Random Works," Meissner has constructed 99 very short digitally sharp pieces - mostly of crystalline glitches and stochastic / erratic rhythms, but others have incidental melodies that inconsequentially pass through soap operas. As you can probably guess, the idea is to set your cd player to random and let the machine construct new patterns each time you hear it. There are some post-digital / post-structuralist ideas mentioned in the liner notes about creating non-linear space and the subversion of interactivity through indeterminancy... all fine ideas, but ones that can not possibly be found on this disc. First of all, the random function of the cd player will simply collate the 99 pieces into different patterns... not reconstruct the fluidity of time. A cd player is not a time machine, no matter how many drugs you take. Second, all of the 99 pieces have a very similar timbre (quite charming and glistening), making it impossible to not listen to it as mere fragments of a larger whole. Pay no attention to the theoretical silliness, as this is a fine collection of powerbook glitch fuckery.

RANDOMNUMBER I Understand Your Date and Time of Nowhere (Rocket Racer) cd 11.98
What do sandpaper and spraypaint bring to mind? Abrasiveness? Graffiti? Woodwork? Well, this is definitely not the case with Randomnumber. Those particular materials are what adorns this cd. Squares of sandpaper of varied grit are the insert and traycard. Gold dots and brown quadrangles are painted directly on the jewel case. Very pretty actually. As for the sounds contained within, it's Matt Roberts, drummer of Hood, doing the electronica thing. Sounding not unlike... Hood! Chimingly pleasant, if a bit forlorn, guitar plucking meanders around electronic tones. Skittery-scattery beats. There's an abundance of this sort of music around as of late, but if you haven't had your fill yet, this is actually quite nice. Also sounds a lot like the artists on the 555 or Fuzzybox labels.
RealAudio clip: "Connection Is Lost"

RANDY BARRACUDA Rick James is Dead/The High (Flogsta Danshall) 7" 6.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Skweee!!! See our Museum of Future Sound review for more explanation...

RANGLIN, ERNIE A Mod A Mod Ranglin (K&K Records) cd 11.98
If you love Jackie Mittoo, you'll most certainly love Ernest Ranglin as well. Ernie is the guitar equivalent to Mittoo's laid back keyboard stylings. Impeccably-produced instrumental guitar work, somewhere between Martin Denny style lounge and rock steady. Excellent!

RANKO, SLAVA Arctic Hysteria (Adolescent) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"I do not want to play music which sounds as if it comes from familiar instruments, music which is based on chord patterns, or music which fits nicely within any particular stereotyped tradition... What I want is the terrifying, the menacing, the cruel, the chaotic, the darkly exciting, the ecstatic, the irrational -- music that resounds between the cells and in the intergalactic voids..." --Slava Ranko